Strawberry's Adventure
by gameprincezz
Summary: Strawberry, the main character of the game Berry Picking, had the perfect life. Or at least that's what she thought until one of her so-called 'friends' told her that none of it was for real and that she didn't have any true friends. So, she starts looking to find just that and ends up in Sugar Rush. Maybe, she'll get a friend...it just may turn out harder than she expected.
1. Prologue

Strawberry's Adventure Chapter 1: Prologue

**Author's Note: Welcome to my story :) This **_**is **_**the same character from my other story, but don't worry, you don't have to read that one to understand this one. This story comes before that story anyway. Also if you did read that story, I want you to forget all you know about it for the time being (I don't want people to constantly compare this story to Once Upon a Fairytale. Also, I decided to change Strawberry's age so it'll be closer to Felix/Ralph/Turbo's age instead of the SR racers). There is a reason I posted this story today, exactly one month from November 2, but you'll find out soon enough ;) Anyway, enjoy chapter 1! Also, there will be very minimal main characters in this first chapter, but I promise they'll come in soon enough.**

_1987…_

Mr. Litwak opened up the doors of his popular arcade as the clock chimed at eight o'clock in the morning.

'_Right on-time.'_ He thought to himself as he opened the doors the same time he did for the past five years. He wasn't ever a minute late.

"Come in kids." Mr. Litwak replied excitedly as usual. He always enjoyed seeing the kids' joyful faces as they entered his arcade.

As soon as the kids enter, the kids rushed over to their favorite games and line up for their turn.

Almost immediately, there was a line at three most popular games.

The newly plugged in game Berry Picking became an instantaneous hit. It was the first game Mr. Litwak bought that was targeted for girl gamers. Even though it was popular among girls and boys, the game's colorful setting with all girls as characters showed that the game was made to get girls' attentions towards playing video games.

The kid who went over to the newest of the three popular games put in two quarters and stared at the screen as the game started.

On the screen, there were three long bushes in a vertical row. Off to the side there was a young girl. Her long light pink hair was tied back in pigtails. She wore a pink dress with two pockets full of regenerating strawberries. She had bright pink eyes and a pink heart under her left eye.

"Let's go berry picking!" She shouted joyfully as she hoped over to the bush in the front row of the game.

Before anything else, the game's announcer started talking as a countdown appeared on the screen.

"In 3…

…2…

…1…

…Go!"

A few berries started to grow on the bushes as the time limit started. The player moved Strawberry with joystick as berries started to grow and appear. The gamer made Strawberry pick the berries as fast as could, which resulted in him going to the next level. More berries appeared level after level. There were normal berries to start with, then came the power-up berries and bad berries. The kid continued to intensely play the game as another kid was intensely playing another popular game in the arcade.

That other gamer was playing as Turbo racing around the circular track of Turbotime. Currently, Turbo was in first place with all his competitors far behind him. He was smiling big as he got ready for another win as usual.

As the others did their jobs, Felix was fixing windows with his magic gold hammer. The gamer playing Fix it Felix jr. was on level seven out of an infinite amount of levels.  
Everything in the arcade was great. None of the characters thought anything bad was going to happen. They all thought everything was going to stay just the way they were; perfect. But boy, were they wrong.

_10 years later, 1997..._

"The arcade is closed!" A video game character near the front of the arcade shouted. All the video game characters disbanded from their assigned posts. After a long day of work, it was finally closing time.

_In Berry Picking..._

It was the end of the day and all the character were finishing up from the previous game. A girl with blue wavy hair wearing an apron handed the main character the cake she won from the last game of the day.  
Taking the cake off the girl's hands, the main girl smiled and said to her friend, "Thank you, Blueberry."

"Here's you go, Strawberry." Blueberry replied in a bored tone of voice.

"Blueberry, are you okay?" Strawberry asked concerned about her best friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Blueberry answered, waving her coworker off.

Even though Blueberry appeared to be telling the truth, Strawberry knew her better than to believe the act..

"Blueberry, I know something's bothering you. You know you can tell me anything."

_'I don't know if I should tell her…she might not like it. I guess I'll tell her; it's not like I have a choice.'_

"Strawberry," She choked her words out. "You're not going to like hearing this."

"What?" Strawberry asked confused.

"Well..." Blueberry started, trying to figure out how she wanted to word her statement. She took a deep breath. "You know it's not fair."

"What's not fair?" Strawberry questioned.

Blueberry turned around. She couldn't face Strawberry while she said her true thoughts out loud to her. It would break her heart.

"It's not fair how you have _everything_."

"I don't have everything." Strawberry argued.

"No." Blueberry argued in response as she turned around to bravely face the game's main character. "You have followers, a big house and even have the biggest role of the game. I never get noticed because players never play me or even think of me as anything other than a NPC. But you, _you're _the main star of this game. If you make even a small mistake, our whole game will be affected. But me, _nothing_ I'd ever do would affect the game. If _I_ was the main character of this game, I wouldn't be as worried about losing my home every day because of a tiny stupid act you do. If I was the main character, all the gamers would know that I do more work than everyone thinks I do! They probably don't even know my name. I can't stand you and how you get everything you ever want. I wouldn't be your friend if I had as choice in the matter! I'm only you're friend because I _have _to be." She yelled angrily.

"I thought we were friends." Strawberry muttered confused as tears started to form in her eyes. It was a serious matter if Strawberry was crying. She _never_ cried.

Blueberry said angrily, "Strawberry, you know I'm only your friend because I'm programmed to be, like everyone else here!"

Now, for the first time ever, Strawberry was crying. She was always happy. No one ever saw her without a grin on her face. For her to start crying was like the end of the world.

Strawberry wiped away her streaming tears. Before leaving, she added one last sentence to Blueberry.

"I can prove to you that I can have real friends. Just you wait and see. I promise that I'll get an actual friend no matter how long it takes."

Then, she ran away from who she thought was her friend.

_'They only like me because they have to? I don't want them to be forced to like me or be forced to be my friends. I want an actual true friend who likes me for me. It may not be instantaneous, but I know I will find one.'_ She was slightly starting to get back to her normal happy self.

She had hope. If her coworkers still wanted to be friends when they weren't force to, she would let them be her friends. But until enough time passed for them to make up their minds, Strawberry would have to go somewhere new. A place where she could meet new people; with one who might be her friend.

She walked up to the giant strawberry of her house, and went up to the door.

"Oh, I forgot. The key!" She muttered as she facepalmed herself. She just remembered that she didn't have the key to unlock the front door.

She walked over to the side of her house, where there were many bushes of fruit. She stopped in her footsteps once she reached the second bush. The bush was covered with strawberries. Strawberry pushed the bush's branches aside to see a key lying on the dirt-filled ground.

"There you are." Strawberry replied successful as she grabbed the big golden key for her house.

Strawberry returned back to the front of her house and placed the key inside the keyhole and turned it to reveal the fruity inside.

The first room of the house was the living room. To the left side of the room was the kitchen.

In the living room, there was a pink couch that set in front of a small TV. Next to the couch was an end table. On another side of the living room, there was a soft chair with a lamp sitting nearby.

Strawberry closed the front door gently behind her and let out a deep sigh.

"What am I going to need?" She asked herself aloud.

_'Obviously strawberries!'_ Strawberry immediately thought in response. She shook her head. _'I mean I __**could**__ take strawberries. But, I mean taking things I __**need**__, things that I can't part with.'_

Strawberry looked around her house in search for items that she absolutely needed.

After some wandering around the house, Strawberry gathered up everything she needed and plopped it onto her pink bed.

So far, she had packed a strawberry-scented pillow, a framed photo of all of the members of Berry Picking, a couple of pink dresses that matched her current dress and a butt-load of berries, mostly strawberries.

"I think this will do." Strawberry replied, placing her hands on her hips in a satisfied manner.

She threw a pink messenger bag on the bed and stuffed all the things she needed inside.

_'Blueberry may say that I don't have any 'real friends', but she's wrong. I'll go find myself some real honest true friends. I mean really, how hard can it be?'_

As soon as Strawberry finished stuffing her bag with necessities, she zipped it up tight and placed it on her shoulder.

"I guess I'm ready." Strawberry muttered as she inched nervously to the wooden door that led out of her room.

"I'm sure going to miss it here." Strawberry whispered sadly. She slowly reached for the door handle and turned it.

"Goodbye room." She spoke aloud while she walked out of her room and into the hallway.

Strawberry walked through the hallway and towards the front door.

_'This might be the last time I get to be here.'_

She closed her eyes. She knew she was going to have to face this sooner or later. Not in a million years would she have guessed it would today. Was she going to keep her group of fake friends or find someone who actually wanted to be her friend?

"Goodbye." She replied sadly as she turned the golden doorknob and opened the door.

She closed her eyes as tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. She seriously was going to miss her home.

She rubbed her eyes and sniffled. _'This is my quest; I have no choice but to complete it. I have to find at least one friend who'll actually care about me, even if it's the last thing I do.'_

Strawberry turned around to catch one last glance of her house and left. Then, she quickly scurried through the game until she reached the exit.

She hopped onto the colorful train and started to hum the game's theme music. She didn't want to think about all the things she just left behind in her game. Fortunately, it did somewhat calm her down.

_'I need to find some true friends, then. It might take me years, but I will do it.'_ She thought with a smile. She was happy to know that she was going to get some friends. But, she still didn't completely understand why the other characters in Berry Picking weren't her friends.  
_'I don't know.'_ She thought with a shrug in response. _'Maybe Blueberry's right about that. I don't know for sure. But I do know that I'll find friends and then, I can prove her wrong.'_

The train stopped at the end of the outlet and Strawberry got off.

_'Here I go.'_ She encouraged herself as she walked into the busy station.

_Beep_

_Beep_

A holographic blue man holding a clipboard appeared out of the blue.

"Name?" He asked.

Strawberry was confused, she never saw this man ever before. Who was he?

"Strawberry." She answered before she asked the stranger her initial question. "Who are you?"

"Just a Surge Protector doing my job." He replied, carelessly. "Now, what game are you from?" He asked, going down the list on his clipboard.

"But...why'd you stop me? You never stopped me before." She questioned confused.

"Game?" He asked impatiently.

"Berry Picking."

As the Surge Protector wrote down the responses on his clipboard, he decided to finally answer Strawberry's question. "I didn't use to stop main game characters or protagonists before. But ever since some suspicious activity occurred, it's required protocol."

Strawberry barely even understood what he meant, but she decided to not ask any questions, she had a place she needed to go to soon.

"...And last thing, where you heading?" He asked.

Strawberry shrugged her shoulders in a childish manner. "I don't know yet. I'll probably go somewhere soon though."

With a nod, the Surge Protector disappeared.

_'Now, what to do now...?'_ Strawberry pondered. _'I guess I'll go around and see what game I'll go to now.'_ With a shrug, she started to wander around the station.

_'No...no...no...'_ She thought to herself as she passed by multiple games. She wanted to find something _new_, but not _too_ new. Also a game with something she could do, but also something different.

She continued walking, rejecting games while doing so until she read one game's title and stopped.

The title read _'The Great Cave Adventure'_.

_'Maybe this game will work. It depends on the concept of the game and if the characters allow me to join or not. But, that sounds fun.'_

She took a deep breath and walked inside the game, otherwise known as her new home.

**Author's Note: Hope you liked chapter 1. The main characters will start to come in the next chapter(at least more major characters) . Lastly, please Review :)**


	2. The Present

Strawberry Chapter 2: The Present

_Roughly 15 years later..._

All the cy-bugs scattered around Sugar Rush, with only a matter left of time before they completely destroyed the sugary game.

A big flash shot out into the sky.

It caught all of the cy-bugs attention, including the half-cy-bug King Candy, otherwise known as Turbo.

As if in a trance, all of the bugs wings flapped and they all started to fly up towards the glowing bug-zapper.

Turbug flew up as well, but he tried to refrain himself from looking at the mysterious gleaming light.

He glanced around at all the surrounding cy-bugs and yelled at them.

Thinking he knew better than them, he yelled, "You fools! Don't look into the-"

He stopped as soon as his eyes caught sight of the light. It was so tempting to go up to it.

He looked straight at the exploding Diet Cola light and his face changed into a look of awe.

"Light..." He murmured; the light mesmerized him, like it did with all the other cy-bugs.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!" He argued, but the cy-bug got the best of him.

"Look into the..._light_!" He screamed as he felt the boiling hot soda burn him to the core.

After King Candy Cy-bug was gone, there were two loud thuds, but only one was heard.

While Ralph and Vanellope screamed out of joy, they did not know what was happening in Vanellope's old home, Diet Cola Mountain.

A little while later, the Diet Cola stopped exploding once the cola finally ran out. The now topless bottle was mostly empty and destroyed. All that was left was debris everywhere.

A tiny sound was heard and a glitching figure appeared soaring through the sky.

He slowly opened his eyes and glared down at himself while he was falling.

A loud thud was heard when he hit the cold ground of the mountain.

He was weak, but he sure remembered everything that had happened. He muttered something under his breath.

"At least she's gone now."

* * *

_A month later..._

Inside the Great Cave Adventure, everything was silent. The only sound to be heard was the soft murmurs of bugs and the flutter of bat wings. They _were_ in a cave after all.

In one of the many sections of the cave, a young girl laid sprawled out over a bed. She had brown curly hair and wore a tan outfit.

She rolled around on her bed and slowly blinked her eyes open.

"Mmmmmmmm..." She moaned as she tossed and turned a tiny bit more in her bed before finally sitting up.

"Six o'clock already? Well, I guess I got a busy day of work ahead of me." She muttered to herself before getting up and stretching. Once she was done, she started to get ready for the day.

She grabbed her heavy backpack, full of tools, and threw it onto her back. Then, she placed her miner's hat on her head. She was ready for the day.

There were still a couple hours since the arcade opened, so she decided to go wander around the game, searching for extra gems, like usual.

About an hour later, she was done mining, and all the other characters in the game were up and at it.

Most of them, however, just pasted on by her.

"Hey guys!" She added friendly, even though nobody seemed to care.

After no response, she just simply shrugged and walked away liked she normally did. Not usually anyone talked to her outside of game-play, anyway.

'Nothing new, really.' She thought. With nothing to do, she decided she might as well get into game position, since the arcade would open shortly.

As routine, she walked over to the entrance of the cave.

The game usually started in the woods just outside the cave. The majority of the game was played within the humongous cave setting inside the game.

Near the entrance of the game, all the other characters appeared to be discussing something.

A girl with blonde, near white, hair glared down at her painted fingernails as she added her opinion to the mix.

"She should really leave. I mean come on Oliver, we gave her a chance and all she ever does is get in the way! I barely get any screen time as it is! Besides, I think fifteen years is long enough for an outsider." She argued.

"Look Diamond," The boy named Oliver confronted. "Yes, Strawberry or _'Katie'_, as we call her in-game, has overstayed her welcome. True. But still, she's homeless without us. Also, fifteen years? Come on guys it is kind of unfair to do it after so long."

"But..." Some of the characters whined.

"Then again, she doesn't belong here." Someone else stated, bringing up another good point. "She should go somewhere else. We'll see what will happen with The Great Cave Adventure after she leaves."

"I guess that's so." A girl with bright red hair muttered under her breath.

"So, it's settled, then?" Oliver asked.

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Almost as if it was on cue, they noticed their unofficial member approaching them.

"Katie, come over here." Diamond yelled.

"Strawberry." Oliver corrected her in a quiet whisper.

"Oh whatever!" Diamond screamed back.

"Yeah..." Strawberry answered nervously as she walked over to the crowd.

"In a unanimous vote between Diamond, Ruby, Greg, Emerald, Georgia, Trevor, Peter, Marble, Tommy and myself, we have reached an agreement." Oliver started.

"Unanimous? But I'm a member of The Great Cave Adventure too. I didn't vote." She asked confused.

"Well, it's kind of about that..." He replied, rubbing the back of his head out of nervousness.

"Go on! Say it!" Ruby yelled to the boy who had to tell Strawberry the hard part.

Oliver took a deep breath and started to explain and break it down to her.

"Roughly fifteen years ago, we let you into our game because we decided to give you a chance. You said you wanted to join another game to try something new and meet new people, well I think by now that you have achieved your goal. I've been told by others that you have overstayed your welcome, which I totally agree upon. I think we'd let you stay in our game long enough and I think you should go find somewhere else to stay."

"What?" Strawberry asked confused; unsure she heard correctly.

"_Strawberry_, we are not going to call you by your in-game character name of _'Katie'_ anymore. You are also going to have to find another place to stay. All in all, we are thinking that..." He paused; the next part would be hard to say. "...that you should leave the game."

Strawberry felt tears well up in her eyes. She _rarely_ cried, but how could she not at a time like this?

"Why?" She stuttered out.

"Because we think it is for the best; for you and us." Ruby answered.

Here Strawberry stood seconds ago, expecting the day to be like an average day. Now within a few sentences, her life changed.

She ran out of the section of the cave and rushed over towards her room with her bed and items. As soon as she got there, she plopped down head-first into a pillow and cried.

Back by the other characters, the group decided that it would be best to send somebody to go check on Strawberry to see if she was alright.

The chosen person wandered over to Strawberry's room.

"Hello Strawberry." The girl greeted.

Strawberry wiped the tears from her eyes and turned around since she recognized the voice.

"Hi Marble." She greeted back; even though she didn't sound very happy from all the crying just minutes before.

"The others want you come to back to the starting position. You got one more day to be a part of our game." She calmly explained.

Strawberry sat up in her bed. "Why should I work with those jerks?" She questioned.  
"Well it _is_ almost time for the arcade to open. Also, you still have all your stuff here, _including_ your codebox. It'll take some time to fully safely disconnect your codebox so you can go back to your original settings and outfit. Besides both your bag and backpack full of stuff. I'm sure you want that too."

"I guess so..." Strawberry murmured in realization.

"So soon you can go to different game, just not yet." Marble summed up.

Strawberry rubbed her eyes once more and got out of her bed.

"I guess one more day, here I come." She added before leaving with Marble.

* * *

After a long day of collecting gems and running around, all the characters in the Great Cave Adventure were tired.

It was almost the end of the day. Strawberry bit her lip out of nervousness. She knew what was coming soon.

Just as she expected, Mr. Litwak flicked the light switch off and everything in the arcade was silent for a couple minutes until he was out of sight.

"All clear!" A character shouted out.

Strawberry gulped, she knew what was coming.

All the characters inside The Great Cave Adventure turned towards her.

"It's about time for you to be heading out." Oliver reminded her.

She just simply nodded as she went over to grab her stuff.

Emerald yelled out to her, "You should regain your original appearance within fifteen minutes or so. Your codebox has been safely disconnected from our game."

Strawberry heard what she said, but didn't even bother to turn around to face the group.

_'All I wanted was friends, but apparently nobody here is my friend. If they truly were, they wouldn't have kicked me out of here. I just wish I could make one friend someday, though.'_

Strawberry grabbed her stuff and turned around. She looked like she was trying to stay strong, but small tears formed in the corner of her eyes.

She wanted to take as slowly as possible to leave there, but she also knew it would make no difference. She was still going to end up having to leave her second home no matter how slowly she did it.

Cutting to the chase, she quickly walked out of her bedroom and over to the crowd of characters.

"Well, it was nice meeting all you guys and thanks for everything. Bye!" She replied with a wave.

Only two out of the huge group even had the decency to wave back to her.

"Bye!" They muttered somberly.

"Bye!" Strawberry added before exiting out of the cave.

"I wonder what it's going to be like around here without her." One of the characters responded.

Diamond, careless of Strawberry once so-ever, decided to answer. "Probably not much different. She never belonged here in the first place."

"I think I might actually miss her." Marble muttered.

Diamond gave her a look like she just said the craziest thing in the world.

"Are you crazy? That Strawberry girl did _nothing_ around here. Nothing but waste space! She took time away from me while the game was being played. She did nothing but whine and complain about her lack of friends. She just acted so much like a-"

"Diamond." Oliver interrupted her. "No need to lie about her. She didn't even do half of the stuff you mentioned! We weren't great friends with her; true. But, we didn't treat her as badly as you did! So back off and leave the lonely girl alone!"

Diamond gave him a glare before finally deciding to leave the room.

"I'm going. I don't need that Strawberry girl to dictate my life while she's not even in this game anymore!" She angrily muttered.

The others just stood around silently for a while after the big event happened.

"Do you think we made a mistake by getting rid of Strawberry?" Emerald questioned.

Oliver shook his head. "No, I think she needed a push, she couldn't stay in this game forever. I think she understands that, even though she doesn't particularly like it. In the long-run, it's for her own good. Now Diamond, on the other hand, shouldn't have treated her the way she did at all. I don't know what the heck is wrong with her. Maybe she's jealous or something? I don't know for sure, but I'll handle her later."

"Okay." One of them responded, nodding their head.

* * *

While the characters in the Great Cave Adventure argued, Strawberry stood outside the cave, in the forest.

_'Wow. It's been a long time since I've left the game. I wonder if much has changed since I left.'_

She shrugged.

_'I guess I'll just have to wait and see.'_

Strawberry started approaching the glowing light that led to the station. Eventually, she found train made of mine carts which led to the station.

_'I guess it's time to go. Maybe I'll meet some friends while I'm there.'_

She hopped into the train and waited patiently for the train to start.

Within seconds, the train started moving towards the light.

"Almost there..." Strawberry muttered softly to herself as she felt the train jerk quickly towards the station.

"Now arriving at outlet ten. Welcome to Game Central Station." An intercom informed.

Strawberry patiently waited in her seat as the train slowed down to a stop.

_'I guess this is it.'_ She thought to herself as she got out of the train cart.

While the train moved back, she moved forwards towards the crowded station.

Strawberry's eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the sight of the new station.

The station itself appeared to be upgraded not too long ago. There were a few more lights and signs added, but nothing too much. Then, there were the people; Strawberry couldn't recognize the majority of them.

All the new faces startled her and she felt like she was frozen in place.

_'Is this still Game Central Station?'_ She thought. She was taken aback by all the new stuff there. It seemed almost as if it went through a transformation within the last fifteen years.

Soon enough, Strawberry fought over the anxiety and started to walk into the station.

_Beep_

She jumped, startled by the random sound.

_'What the heck was that?' _She wondered. She looked around to see what caused the loud noise.

Nothing appeared to have caused it.

Strawberry just simply shrugged and took another step into the station. But before she could get too far, she heard something, causing her to turn around.

"Name?" An impatient holographic blue man questioned.

_'What should I tell him?'_ Strawberry worried. _'My real name or my name from The Great Cave Adventure?'_

"Uhhh..." She stuttered

"Look miss, I don't have all day. Name?" He repeated.

"Strawberry." She decided to answer.

Most of the time the Surge Protector was careless when people answered and he just wrote down what they told him, but he glanced upwards in a suspicious manner.

"Strawberry?" He questioned, an eyebrow rising.

"Yep." She nodded.

"Okay...What game are you from, Strawberry?"

It almost seemed like he knew. But, Strawberry wasn't stupid; she knew he was on to her.

"Just now?" She wondered.

"Yes." The Surge Protector answered.

"The Great Cave Adventure." She firmly replied.

"But I don't know a character by the name of _'Strawberry'_ there." He argued.

"Well, technically I was from Berry Picking, but that got unplugged, so I came in here. I asked politely if I could be a part of the game and they agreed. So, I was a part of the Great Cave Adventure as a character named _'Katie'_. For a while that was who I was, but now, I think I'll just be me." She quickly explained.

The Surge Protector just nodded, letting all the information sink into his brain.

"What game you're heading to, missing girl?" He questioned.

"Missing girl?" Strawberry asked, confused, "What do you mean by that?"

"You mysteriously disappeared from Berry Picking years back. No one knew where you were. Everyone just assumed you were dead or something terrible happened to you. Your game got unplugged, you know." He replied.

Strawberry's eyes widened, she didn't think that would happen. She bit her lip out of nervousness as she prepared herself to ask the next question that scared her to pieces.

"Did they all make it out? Are...they okay?" She worried.

"Thank goodness that they all did. They evacuated the game a couple minutes before the arcade opened for the day after your disappearance. Even though they all made it out safely, that girl with the blue hair really looked ticked off."

"Blueberry." Strawberry murmured under her breath.

"Well that girl wasn't happy for sure."

"I should go see her sometime..." Strawberry brainstormed aloud.

"I wouldn't." The Surge Protector advised. "That girl looked pretty furious at someone. If that girl was mad at me, I wouldn't particular go see her if I had a choice."

"Well, I guess I could wait for now. But, I _do_ need to give her a visit when I get chance. But before I find Blueberry, I should figure out a place to at least crash for the night." She muttered to herself, speaking her thoughts aloud again.

"Well, make sure to not go turbo." The Surge Protector scolded her before disappearing to go stop somebody else.

"Go turbo?" Strawberry asked confused."What the heck does that _even_ mean?"

Nobody answered her question.

After a few minutes, she shrugged and decided to walk deeper into the bright station.

"Whoa..." She replied once again, with star-stricken eyes. Game Central Station was just more advanced and bigger than she thought it was. It was just amazing to even think about. It was the place where different game characters could meet or even confront one another. Without GCS there would barely any friendships or even romances inside the gaming-universe. It was just mind-blowing how important this place was to all the game characters.

"Now, where to go..." She started as she wandered around the arcade, like she did many years ago.

_'I remember there was a good game somewhere in the arcade. What was it called...no...no.'_

Strawberry walked by many more game outlets before finally finding the game that she was thinking about.

"Sugar Rush..." She muttered as she stopped wandering to stare down the cord of the game.

_'I don't remember what type of game it was, but I remember that someone said it had good graphics or something.'_

She shrugged, unsure.

"I guess I'll just stay for the night and then, I'll figure out where I'll stay." She stated as she walked down the cord into the game.


	3. An Unexpected Friend?

Strawberry Chapter 3: An Unexpected Friend?

Strawberry wandered down the long cord to the game. The sweet smell of sugar increased more and more as she came closer to the game.

_'I don't know much about this game, but I know it sure smells good. It smells like cookies baking in an oven.'_

She continued walking until she reached the end of the cord. She stopped in place to view the game's beautiful landscape.

Everything was made of something sweet, even the clouds. It appeared as if the game had every sugary item known to man in it.

Strawberry's eyes sparkled with excitement. The game looked incredible! This had to be the game for her.

_'I wonder where I'm going to live.'_ She questioned. _'I guess wherever I'm welcomed.' _She thought in response.

She cheerfully skipped down the rainbow taffy bridge, ending up in the Candy Cane Forest.

"Hopefully, I'll be able to stay here for the night. I mean I have nowhere else to go. But where...?" She looked around the area. A forest didn't seem like the most welcoming place to sleep at, but she had no other choice. She wasn't going to just barge into someone's home and ask for a place to sleep.

_'Maybe I could ask the leader of the game?'_ Strawberry wondered. The leader would know what she should do.

So, Strawberry continued wandering through the forest to find the game's leader. By that time, she had fully returned to her original programming.

Eventually, she made it to the side of the racetrack.

"Hello?" She yelled out, hoping that somebody would respond.

But, nobody did. So, she continued wandering around the area until she heard a loud sound.

She turned towards the direction of the sound and got a big blast of wind in her face. Something sped by on the racetrack at a very high speed.

"What was that?" She questioned. But not thinking too much about it, she just shrugged it off and continued wandering.

Less than a minute later, a few more things sped on by her. She stopped in place, startled by the sudden blast of wind. But after a couple things past by her, she finally realized what was on the track: racers.

"That looks fun." Strawberry added with a smile and she watched the racers battle it out for first place. "Maybe someday I'll be able to that…but, that probably won't happen."

_Growl_

She glanced down at the direction of the sound to see her rumbling stomach.

"Oh yeah. I forgot I haven't eaten anything in a while." She remembered. All of the day's events had her distracted.

_'But since I'm surrounded by food, I need to think about which type of food I feel like eating.'_

She looked around. Even though everything was made of candy, there was very minimal food nearby. Pretty much the main thing nearby was the candy racetrack and she wasn't planning on eating it. So, she decided she would wander around again. It would give her time to decide what type of candy she wanted and give her time to find a good place to stay.

Strawberry walked past the racetrack, through a field of gumdrops and ended up in front of the massive Diet Cola Mountain.

"Oh. I guess I wandered too far and reached a dead end." She stated, disappointed. She still wasn't sure what type of candy she wanted; there were just too many choices to choose from. "I guess I'll either have to turn around or eat one of these lollipops."

_Growl_

"Then again, I _am_ starting to get extremely hungry. Maybe I should at least eat a lollipop before I get too much hungrier. It'll fill me up enough for the time being."

Even though the lollipop was huge, she reached up and tried to grab it, but instead of grabbing the lollipop, her hand went through to the other side.

"What?" She asked, confused. "I was just trying to get something to eat..." Not trying to understand it, she shrugged and thought of the positive. "Well, at least it's not a dead end."

Strawberry pulled her hand back and forth through the secret entrance. She needed to see if it was true. Every time she put it underneath, her hand vanished. Then, when she pulled it back towards her, it looked like normal.

"So, it _is_ a secret entrance." She confirmed. Berry Picking didn't have anything like it, but The Great Cave Adventure had some secret locations.

_'I'm going to go check it out.'_

So, Strawberry walked through the mysterious opening and into the inside of Diet Cola Mountain.

Inside, it was darkly lit, unlike the bright sunny outside. The whole area had a slight glow and the ceiling was Mentos. Also, the place was way bigger than she would've assumed it would be.

"This place is huge. Maybe I could just sleep here for the night. It's pretty roomy and empty."

With that said, Strawberry dropped her stuff down in a corner, ate some candy and laid down on the ground.

_'I can figure out more in the morning. I just need to rest up for now.'_

Then, she closed her eyes and shortly after, fell asleep.

* * *

Strawberry slowly opened her eyes in the morning, feeling something hitting her in the side.

"What are you doing in my house?" An annoyed person asked.

"Huh?" Strawberry wondered aloud as she was still in the process of waking up. She wasn't even sure where the heck she was.

As soon as her eyes adjusted enough, she remembered what had happened.

She looked up to see a person dressed in a mostly white outfit kicking her in the side

"Your home?" Strawberry questioned.

"Yes. _My_ home. Now, can you get out before I kick you out?" The person wondered.

"Sorry for intruding." She apologized as she stood up.

The person nodded. "Well sorry, whatever. I don't need some dumb Sugar Rush racer barging into my house."

"But, I'm not a Sugar Rush racer. My name's Strawberry and-"

"You mean like the food?" The person interrupted.

"Yeah." She answered.

"Well, I hate that food."

Strawberry's expression grew into one of shock.

"How can you say such a thing?" She questioned, offended. "I mean I've heard people say they love, like and even dislike strawberries, but never _hate_ them."

"They're too sweet. Besides, you're missing the point; I need you to leave, Strawberry." The person insisted with a slight push.

"Well, let me finish explaining myself first."

"Fine." The person agreed with a roll of their eyes.

"Well, my name's Strawberry. I originally came from this game called Berry Picking. This girl I know, Blueberry, told me that everything I had was false. It seemed I had many friends and popularity when I actually didn't have any. Also, she said some other stuff to me. So, I left the game to prove her wrong. I went to the game The Great Cave Adventure for ten years to try and make some friends, but I only ended up failing. They kicked me out of their game yesterday, so I ended up here. I still want to make friends, but I don't even know what the definition of a friend is." She explained.

The person was left silent.

Wanting to break the awkward silence, Strawberry asked a question.

"So, before you kick me out, can you tell me one thing; who are you?"

"Me?" The person questioned as they pointed to themself. "If I tell you, you better not freak out or go tell everybody where I am."

"Okay." Strawberry agreed.

The person took a deep breath before answering the question.

"I'm Turbo from that 80's racing game Turbotime."

He waited for her response, which never came. She just seemed to nod and listen.

"...And that doesn't bother you?" He asked. He knew a bunch of people who would respond by either screaming their heads off or punching him in the face.

"No. Why would it? Besides, you have a pretty cool name."

"You've never heard the phrase _'going turbo'_ before, have you? I'm guessing not; since you're still talking to me."

"The Surge Protector told me something about that. What it is?" She questioned.

"Only the worst mistake of my entire life. Like you, I was a part of another game, but I left for a different reason. I crashed into Roadblasters, trying to get my game more popularity. But next thing I know, Roadblasters and my game are both unplugged. It's not all my fault, you know. But, I still get _all_ the blame. Anyway, after years of hiding out, I waited for a new racing game to get plugged in and that's how I ended up here."

"Interesting. Well, if you waited so long for another racing game, why aren't you out there, you know, racing?"

"That's none of your business." Turbo argued back. He already had given her too much information anyway. He walked away from Strawberry.

"Well, do you know the leader of this game?" Strawberry curious asked.

Turbo stopped in place. He didn't particularly want to answer that question. If one person was the leader of the game, it should've been him.

"That little bratty glitch in the castle." He answered.

_'A glitch rules this game? That's different. But then again, I've never been to this game before.'_

"Do you have any problems with the leader?" Strawberry had to ask. Turbo didn't really seem fond of the leader, whoever it was.

"Me and her...we have our _disagreements_." Turbo responded. He didn't want to talk anymore about the topic. So, he decided to ask his guest a question. "So, you came to this game to make a friend, huh?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "Hopefully, I'll be able to find one."

_'Maybe if I help this girl out, she'll leave me alone.'_ Turbo thought to himself. It was the perfect way for this girl to stay out of his way for good.

"But, I can't just _ask_ somebody to be my friend. It doesn't work out that way like it does for three year-olds." Strawberry stated. She wished she could make friends easy, but she didn't know how.

"Why not? I see the Sugar Rush racers do that all the time."

"Really?" Strawberry perked up. She didn't think that would every work. She ran over to Turbo and held out her hand. "Then, do you want to be my friend?"

Turbo gave her a strange look, but thought about the future. As soon as he agreed, Strawberry would be gone and out of his worries forever.

"Okay." Turbo carelessly agreed with a shake of Strawberry's hand.

"Really?" Strawberry's eyes lit up with excitement. She finally had her first friend.

"Yeah, whatever." Turbo waved her off.

"Well, thank you. I'm so glad I have a friend now. But, I better head out; I need to talk to that _'little bratty glitch'_." Strawberry excitedly added as she started to head out. "I got to go. See you later!" She replied with a wave.

Turbo never saw someone so happy in his life. The closest was probably Felix, but Felix always acted like that. But, Turbo watched as Strawberry left the room.

_'Good. She's out of my way for good now. That was easy. All she needed was somebody to say that they're her friend. Now, I'm free to live peacefully again without any more annoyances.'_


End file.
